The recent attack at The Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Md., in which a man who had been nursing a grudge against the newspaper shot and killed two reporters, an editor, an editorial writer, and a young sales assistant, struck close to home in more ways than one. Several years ago, on a freezing winter’s night, somebody broke most of The Star’s front windows. Speculation in the office centered on a guy who’d been furious about his name appearing in the police news — much like the shooter in Maryland — but no one was ever caught. Nor was that incident the only one of its kind. Way back when Everett Rattray was editing The Star, a man brandished a rifle at him and threatened to shoot up the place.

Every paper, unfortunately, has stories like that; they come with the territory, all the more so if it’s local. Never, though, have journalists been under attack in this nation as they have from the day Donald Trump took office. In Russia, maybe, they shoot dissenting news people on the streets — not here, not  yet anyway. But Mr. Trump, with his unbridled talk of “fake news” and newspapers as “the enemy of the American people” has so contaminated the prevailing atmosphere that more people than not now say they distrust or disbelieve everything they read or hear. (With one exception, of course: Fox News.)

There’s been no indication whatever that the murders at The Gazette are in any way connected to the president’s divisive rhetoric. But it ought not be too much to hope that in their wake, he makes a dispassionate reading of the First Amendment he so often abuses, and comes to understand that at its heart is the right of all Americans to say what we believe without fearing for our very lives.

Word was out. More than 100 boats rocked on the water east and north of Montauk Point on Saturday morning, most, as best we could tell, seeking the trophy-size striped bass that suddenly appeared here in the preceding days. Success was easy for many anglers, especially those aboard the many charter boats with savvy captains able to put customers on to the fish. Some of the bass reached into the 40-pound range, cows, as they are called, due to their size. Many were thrown back when released from the hooks; some were taken to the dock to be celebrated — and then turned into fillets. 

Media organizations like this one are involved, too, glorifying catches of large bass in fishing reports and photographs of prize-winning fish.

The cow bass’s fecundity also should be taken into consideration. Marine biologists estimate that a 4-year-old striped bass might produce about 175,000 eggs, while one that reaches 16 years and about 40 to 50 pounds might produce more than three million. Some fisheries managers have recommended limiting catches to a “slot” between the female bass’s sexual maturity (at about 22 inches) and 30 inches, for example. New York anglers are allowed to keep one fish of 28 inches and above per day. 

What happens to those that are released is not always good. Studies suggest that in warm waters, like those here in July and August, as many as two-thirds of bass die shortly after they are released.

It is exciting that big stripers have returned. It is up to all of us to make sure that they continue returning for years to come.

These are the times that try drivers’ souls. July on the South Fork brings far too many vehicles onto roads not configured to handle so much traffic, and ordinary, minor transgressions can end in white-knuckle rage — or at least unreasonable delays.

That guy in the pool service van texting with his phone on Route 114 is a dangerous hazard. The garbage truck stopped on narrow Union Street in Sag Harbor causes long backups and confusion as a mom in a black Escalade unwisely decides to make a left and is stuck perpendicular to the stream of steamed oncoming motorists. Well-meaning and trying to be courteous, drivers gesture for others to make a turn, confusing motorists behind them and creating new potential dangers. Packs of bicyclists in shiny clothing apparently revel in refusing to ride single file. People try to make left turns —a bad idea until the first frost, in our opinion.

On village streets and elsewhere, construction vehicles and landscapers’ trailers are left in the travel lane, their drivers loath to tear up a client’s grass; police, busy with other things, necessarily look the other way. Crosswalks and jaywalkers create their own sorts of problems. On Main Street in East Hampton the four lanes that a pedestrian must traverse to get from one side of the roadway to the other constantly give rise to near-misses. Well-meaning drivers stop suddenly for jaywalkers going from the movie theater side toward Starbucks, gesturing those on foot blithely into harm’s way. Tips for those in crosswalks: Never assume that a vehicle will stop for you, make eye contact with its driver, and keep in mind that in an accident you will be the loser. And then there is the “courtesy left,” in which one driver stops improperly to let a turning vehicle across the lane into opposite traffic, all very polite, of course, but yielding confusion among other drivers — and in a few recent cases, crashes. It is all very routine and maybe annoying. Then, tragedy strikes. 

A Springs resident, Christian Bermeo, 28, was killed on Sunday afternoon when a car turned across his lane, sending him through the air and into another, oncoming, car. Mr. Bermeo left behind a son and girlfriend. The driver of the car that he struck, a 79-year-old woman, left the scene of the accident; police declined to charge her, as it appeared to them that she was confused after her car was spun around by the impact and its airbags deployed. Rumors circulated fast in the aftermath of the crash, and it is possible that we might never know what caused it. 

All in all, it is beyond hectic on the highways and byways at this time of year. Our advice is to slow down, stay away from the horn, and try not to let it all get to you. Most important, always remember that someone’s life — even your own — might be in your hands as you place them on the wheel and put your car in gear.

On a recent evening drive on Scuttlehole Road in Bridgehampton, we noticed a woman in an imported sedan drop what appeared to be a cigarette butt out of her car window. The roadside grass is uncharacteristically brown for this time of year, thanks to an early dry spell. That last bit of a cigarette, had it been alight, had it rolled into the combustible weeds, could have touched off a blaze that might have threatened the nearby houses. Plus, it was littering.

From a bird’s-eye view, the vulnerability of the South Fork woods to fire becomes apparent. Building code limits on clearing in many places are such that houses are but dots amid a sea of trees. The wrong combination of an ignition point, a high wind, and dry, summer conditions could lead to a fire of devastating proportion.

The woods here are overdue for a leveling blaze. The last big brush fire in East Hampton Town was in 1986, when 2,500 acres in Hither Hills burned. That fire, though smaller, was not unlike the massive Pine Barrens fire of 1995, which claimed almost 7,000 acres. A nightmare scenario, many years ago, the story goes, is of a fire that broke out near Sag Harbor and worked its way to Stephen Hand’s Path in East Hampton. If that happened today, the scale of the devastation would be almost unimaginable.

Avoiding brush fires should be an individual effort, centering on care and common sense. They include not using fireworks or burning yard waste (which are illegal in New York State anyway), not tossing cigarettes onto the ground or roadway, and never parking vehicles on dry vegetation. Sparks from backyard or deck fire pits can be dangerous, too, and they should not be used during arid periods. 

Beach fire rules are posted in many locations. They require that outdoor fires be at least 50 feet from dune vegetation, confined to a metal container, and that a large bucket of water be kept at the ready nearby. Officials warn that a fire must never be left unattended and must be extinguished with water.

Firefighters and other emergency service personnel are busy enough at this time of year. Let’s not add to their workload with blazes that could be avoided.

Southampton Supervisor Jay Schneiderman had seen enough. According to a press release, he was fed up with the proliferation of signs illegally posted along roads in Bridgehampton and Water Mill and ordered town workers to remove them. More than 100 signs touting everything from junk hauling to summer camps were disposed of in a sweep.

“We have devoted so much effort to preserve our natural beauty we are not going to let it be marred by illegal advertising on our roadways from companies looking to make a fast buck,” Mr. Schneiderman said in the announcement. While Southampton officials declined to issue citations this time, they warned that repeat violators could be charged with littering, obstructing roads, the private use of public rights of way, and placing prohibited signs.

In East Hampton Town, officials who should take a cue from their counterparts in Southampton basically ignore illegal signs. Building companies and others frequently place too-large signs on roadsides or leave them up longer than allowed. In one particularly weird instance, the town’s Building Department slapped a stop-work order on an architect’s Bluff Road, Amagansett, sign that was several square feet larger than the legal maximum and had been left standing for months beyond the date by which, under the law, it should have been removed. Even after the construction issue had been resolved, the insanely large sign stayed in place, but sporting a nice new building permit.

Similarly, both Perry Gershon and Lee Zeldin supporters nearby have erected their own illegally sized placards, which one would think would be a simple matter for town code enforcers to resolve. (Andy Sabin, we’re looking at you.) 

Is it corruption? Ignorance? Laziness? Is Town Hall understaffed and overworked? Are our elected officials afraid of angering voters in the trades? Are they over-solicitous of the real estate industry? Who knows. What is obvious is that no one in a position of authority appears to care, while violations spread like mushrooms after heavy rain.

Some years ago an East Hampton code officer told us that most people who put up illegal signs simply don’t know the law, that in general a quick phone call was all it took to get compliance. With business phone numbers on most, if not all, of the improper signs, why Town Hall does not drop the dime is a very good question.

Meanwhile, here’s to Jay Schneiderman and Southampton Town staff members who decided that a better-looking, more rule-following community mattered. Good work, folks. Let’s hope East Hampton Town gets the message.

In the sterile, dry gulch of corporate retail that has become the East Hampton Village business district, the East Hampton Chamber of Commerce’s ongoing push for a once-a-week farmers and makers market should be a priority, if for only one reason:  It would provide a valuable outlet for local residents, whether in agriculture, handcrafts, or wellness products, to sell to their friends and neighbors while bettering their bottom lines. 

Unfortunately, the concept was greeted coldly in Village Hall. After a proposal by the chamber for a market in Herrick Park was rejected (perhaps rightly, given the potential wear and tear on the grass) another, for a Friday afternoon bazaar on Percy’s Way, off Newtown Lane near Babette’s restaurant, was blasted out of the water the minute it surfaced. 

One place that might work, in our opinion, is an underused rear section of the Schenck parking lot, which has entrances on North Main Street and Newtown Lane. Another idea, if neither of the above is suitable, would be for the village to buy some land somewhere for the express purpose of a market that also could sometimes be used for picnics or low-key events. There seems little hope, however.

We have to wonder in whose interest the village’s management of the commercial district is, exactly. It obviously is not the small-scale local farmers, cooks, or craftspeople who would benefit from a high-visibility place to sell their wares. Nor is it in the interest of the majority of village and town residents, very few of whom are interested in most of what is sold on Main Street and Newtown Lane.

Instead of being rapidly hostile to anything new, Village Hall should work with the chamber of commerce to find an acceptable time and location for a market. Locals even might look forward to going into the center of town once again.

While not traditionally thought of as a flash point between conservationists and conservatives over threatened and endangered plants and animals, the East End has its own deep connections to the 1973 act of Congress that President Trump and his allies now seek to undermine. Three birds come most immediately to mind: the bald eagle, piping plover, and osprey, all of which have rebounded from what not that long ago appeared to be near-certain extinction.

Beyond the plovers, eagles, and osprey, more than 100 plant and animal species are in trouble here, according to the Peconic Estuary Program. The number of species on the East End is high in comparison to many other parts of the United States due to the combination of upland, wetland, and deep and shallow water zones, formed over thousands of years, which gave rise to impressive biodiversity. This is something those lucky enough to live here treasure and our visitors are drawn to again and again. It is no surprise that Montauk Point and its lighthouse, looking out over perhaps the wildest of the wild, has become a state symbol of deep pride.

The list of species that are rare or endangered globally, nationally, or locally includes the most endangered sea turtle, the Kemp’s ridley, as well as the leatherback and Atlantic hawksbill sea turtles, roseate and black terns, the Eskimo curlew, the state-listed endangered tiger salamander, the golden eagle, and loggerhead shrike. Offshore, right whales, Atlantic salmon, and short-nose and Atlantic sturgeon are critically endangered, while bluefin tuna and a number of sharks are listed as at risk.

Rare and at-risk plants include silverweed, sandplain gerardia, blue flag, seabeach amaranth, milkweed, and white-edge sedge — many coming under assault from invasive species, such as now-ubiquitous phragmites, while others suffer relentless depredation from an out-of-control deer population, and most of all, from development and other man-made threats.

Not all at-risk plants and animals in the state have earned federal protection under the Endangered Species Act. Listings by the Department of the Interior are highly politicized even though the agency is supposed to safeguard the biodiversity on which all life on earth depends. Because relatively little is known about the complex interplay of species, however, it is impossible to know if any are expendable; therefore, all should be protected. Whether one sees the divine hand of a creator in nature or billions of years of evolution at work, it should not be up to humankind to decide which live on and which disappear.

A striking image of Montauk in the year 2100 made the online rounds this week. Produced by Scott Bluedorn, an artist and thinker, it showed the easternmost portion of the South Fork as it might appear after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s worst-case projections for climate change-driven sea level rise. The image is stark and drew a lot of attention.

It has long been known that Montauk will eventually become an island of its own, cut off from the rest of East Hampton as low-lying Amagansett from Beach Hampton to Hither Hills is covered by water. But by looking closely at six feet of sea level rise on the NOAA flood map Mr. Bluedorn noticed something more: Montauk itself could be divided into two parts with another for the Hither Hills highlands.

Taking some artistic license in making a provocative image from the sterile NOAA data, Mr. Bluedorn called one part West Montauk Island, where a new commercial center is on elevated ground near where the hamlet’s Fire Department has a second fire station. The lake becomes the Montauk Chanel in Mr. Bluedorn’s version; on East Montauk Island,

Oyster Pond is now Oyster Bay. Generously, he allows the lighthouse to remain, which is not entirely a sure thing despite a $28 million planned Army Corps of Engineers project to shore up the bluff on which it sits.

Mr. Bluedorn’s inspired vision is not all that far-fetched. A study commissioned by the Town of East Hampton has already determined that an elevated causeway would have to be built at the entrance to downtown Montauk to replace a low-lying portion of Route 27. The report also presents a preliminary plan for relocating much of the commercial center away from the sea and from a new open waterway that could connect Fort Pond Bay to the ocean by subsuming Fort Pond itself.

The science of climate change has been settled since the 1970s. And, as recounted in a detailed New York Times Magazine piece this week, as the 1980s progressed, world leaders came agonizingly close to a global treaty limiting carbon dioxide emissions, but failed to reach binding agreement. Locally, elected officials are beginning to rethink coastal policy in the face of almost impossible decisions about what will be allowed to remain and what will go away as the water encroaches. A report presented in June to the East Hampton Town Board called climate change, sea level rise, and increased storm activity the greatest threats to East Hampton and its residents, upending the economy, property, and the drinking water supply.

Gallup says that 70 percent of people ages 18 to 34 are very worried about global warming, but almost the same portion of Republicans think the claims are exaggerated. Given this political reality, the prospects of action at a national level any time soon are dim. That leaves communities like ours on their own in dealing with the consequences. Work like Mr. Bluedorn’s helps us imagine the unimaginable. It is important to take notice and demand answers from those we elect — in the villages and Albany and the nation’s capital.

East Hampton Town officials, having pulled a bait-and-switch on unsuspecting buyers of nonresident beach parking permits at Ditch Plain in Montauk now need to do the right thing and waive at least the first offense of anyone ticketed for using the main lot.

Back at the beginning of the season, when many nonresident parkers plunked down $375 for a permit, access to all the spots at Ditch Plain was part of the deal. However, after a June vote, the town board jerked away that agreed-upon privilege.

Now in high season, nonresidents who pull into and park at that lot early, before a new attendant’s booth is staffed, get a rude surprise from the hard-working traffic-control officers when they return to their vehicles after surfing or walking on the beach. If they don’t want to risk a ticket, they have to jockey for a limited number of spaces off Otis Road or brave the axle-busting, potholed “Dirt Lot” to the east. Or just go home.

For years, East Hampton Town’s approach to the shore has been inconsistent and inadequate. On one hand, the town ignored multiple laws and green-lighted illegal erosion-control sandbags, which only steal beach from the public, in downtown Montauk and elsewhere, while on the other it has failed to keep up with demands from the growing resident and visitor population for access to the beaches. 

The time for the town to have purchased more property for parking at existing beaches and to open new lots, especially at the ocean, came and went long ago. Instead, the town wound up in high-crisis mode, adding late-day garbage pickup at the beaches only after unsightly heaps of trash flowed from the bins onto the ground and adding portable toilets after the county pointed out that they are required at bathing beaches. The town has also resorted to emergency methods, such as limiting the largest of the three Ditch Plain lots to residents.

Under a previous administration the town blew it big time at Ditch Plain, failing to buy the East Deck Motel property. Now, a nearby parcel is for sale that could help relieve some of the parking pressure, but no action is apparent. Meanwhile, the town trustees look the other way as a sliver of sand at Maidstone Park on Three Mile Harbor, sometimes known as Baby Beach for the shallow, safe water there, is turned into one large tailgate party.

What should be obvious is that town government has not been up to the task of adequately managing our beaches and planning for their future. A prime example is the abrupt Ditch Plain change that left many nonresident permit holders upset and feeling cheated. The town board needs to find a way to restructure how the beaches are run and planned for over the long term. 

Appointing a beach czar, along the lines of East Hampton Village, which has a capable beach manager and support staff, might in the long run, as well as the short, be the best way to go. The current hodgepodge is not fair to anyone — including the traffic-control officers who are on the front lines, dealing with upset people who try to follow the rules and just want to get to the beach.

In the absence of budget controversies and with a state cap on tax increases, the lead-up to this year’s school district voting, on Tuesday, has been uncommonly quiet. That is not to say that the balloting is insignificant; spending plans await approval, and two districts have contests for board seats.

In the East Hampton School District, in addition to annual expenses, taxpayers will be asked to bless an $8.9-million bus and vocational education facility. East Hampton also has the most interesting race for school board, with two seats in play. 

Christine DeSanti is seeking re-election, and Jeffrey Erickson and Sarah Minardi are vying for board seats. We are pleased that Ms. Minardi has chosen to run for elected office; she is smart, hard-working, and has experience in community organizations. Ms. DeSanti is the school board’s vice president and has been a strong advocate for the district’s growing vocational efforts. We endorse both. Mr. Erickson is a police officer with an interest in school security, but otherwise we know less about him, which makes him difficult to endorse. 

The $8.9 million being put before East Hampton voters covers the cost of purchasing three acres on Springs-Fireplace Road, where the town’s sewage plant had been, construction, and outfitting portions of the building for vocational training. The district’s buses are now parked both on school property on Long Lane and at a leased site on Route 114. Renting the Route 114 property, the former Schaefer Bus Company garage, costs taxpayers $200,000 a year, is in poor repair, and not suitable for educational purposes.

Students now travel to Riverhead at considerable additional expense for training in the trades. Keeping them in the district would greatly improve their school day, and in some cases, allow them time to play high school sports, something their travel schedules make difficult. For the business community, the bus facility’s educational role would prove a plus; many businesses struggle to find qualified workers. Students would have opportunities to be trained and licensed in such fields as auto repair, welding, and automotive computer programming, skills they could immediately use to find well-paying jobs or as stepping-stones toward even more lucrative careers. The bus bond referendum would add about $25 a year to the average property tax bill. It should be approved.

AMAGANSETT

In Amagansett, Mary A. Eames, who has spent countless hours keeping an eye on the school board and its spending priorities, hopes to unseat Dawn Rana-Brophy. While we respect Ms. Eames, we believe her presence would be disruptive on the five-member board of education, which could either turn out to be good or bad, while it is hard to make the case that the Amagansett School is in need of major change. Parents are generally happy, and taxpayers are, for the most part, without complaints. Though she sometimes expresses valid concerns, she appears to represent a limited constituency at best, and we see no compelling reason for the incumbent, Ms. Rana-Brophy, to be replaced. Whatever happens, Ms. Eames is sure to continue her valuable work as a watchdog, including posting videos of school board meetings online.

While there are few contests of note in the remaining South Fork school districts, it is nevertheless important that everyone who can vote does so. Taxpayers should be aware that only school district budgets provide them with a direct say on spending; municipalities make budget decisions after public hearings.

Poll times vary, so it is best to check with the respective districts. See you in the voting booths on Tuesday!